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SOLEMN PROTEST 



AGAINST THE LATE DECLARATION OF WAR. 



IN A 



DISCOURSE, 



DELIVERED 



OJY THE NEXT LORD'S DAY 



AFTER THE TIDINGS OF IT WERE RECEIVED. 



y 



BY DAVID OSGOOD, d. d. 

PASTOR OF THE CHURCH I If MEDFORD. 



SECOND EDITION. 

— - ^^■^■^ *■* '.c- <j^ <n c^wxL- 

EXETER : 
PRINTED BY C. NORMS & CO. 

1812. 



SOLEMN PROTEST. 



II CIIRON. xiii. 12. 

O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers ; 
for ye shall not prosper. 

As the dreadful calamity of war has just befallen our 
country and oppresses all our minds with grid and 
concern, a discourse upon this subject is, of all others 
the most seasonable, as meeting your most anxious 
thoughts and sure to engage your most earnest atten- 
tion. The feelings of ever)' man, capable of the least 
reflection, must be shocked beyond measure by so 
sudden and unexpected a fall from peace and plenty, 
ease and comfort, security and enjoyment, into all the 
privations, the hardships, the burdens, the perils, the 
distresses, the complicated horrors of war. At this 
moment, your minds are harassed and your bosoms 
tortured with the idea of your sons, your husbands, 
your brothers reluctantly torn from all the scenes and 
occupations of peace, from all their domestic connex- 
ions, enjoyments and pursuits, to be exposed in the 
tented field, subjected to the rigors of a military life, 
liable to the numerous and fatal diseases of a camp, 
and occasionally, to stand as so many marks for the 
sharp shooters "in the hostile arm}'. You anticipate 
the tingling of your ears at the tidings of one, and an- 
other, and another of these your beloved friends and 
relatives fallen in battle, mangled witK wounds, groan- 
ing and expiring on the crimsoned field, or lodged in 
military hospitals, there to linger in torment for a little 
space, till nature be exhausted, and they give up the 
ghost. Your bowels sound with pain and yearning 
at the expected accounts of garments rolled in blood, 
and the extensive carnage spread by contending ar- 



mies. Nor can you forbear thinking of what must 
immediately take placet tnc incalculable loss of men 
and of treasure upon the mighty waters. The im- 
mense property of our merchants at this moment float- 
ing from all quarters of the globe is, by this one word, 
war, given up an unprotected and almost certain prey., 
together with the thousands and thousands of our sea- 
faring brethren, having this property in charge, to be 
all made captives, crowded into jails and on board 
prison-ships, or constrained to man the fleets of the 
enemy and replenish with hands his thousand crtiisers. 
You are in daily expectation of the ravages whrch 
these cruisers may make, their plunderings and burn- 
ings in the ports and harbours of our coast from one 
extremity to the other ; while on our western frontier 
through its whole extent, the forces of the two Candi- 
das, in junction with the numerous tribes of hostile 
savages, are laving waste our new settlements, bring- 
ing pillage and death on the defenceless inhabitants. 
You cannot suppress your sympathy in the perils to 
which this portion of our population is, even now 
while I am speaking, exposed. Some of you, my 
brethren, still remember what your own feelings were 
on that day when almost every breeze of air brought 
to \ our ears the alarming report, "that the enemy was 
at hand, that you must instantly leave your habitations 
and flv for your lives." My eyes have w itnessed and 
by personal experience I know, and those of you w ho 
are my coevals, by the same experience also know, 
that the particulars in the description now given are 
the fruits and e fleets of war — were fully realized, most 
dreadfully exemplified in that war in which we our- 
selves were formerly involved. 

Look at this picture, ye sell-called true republicans, 
contemplate its variegated features; then goandadvo- 
cftte the war now proclaimed; extol to the skies, the 
wisdom and patriotism of its authors; with your ac- 
customed zeal and vehemence electioneer afresh in 
tin ir favour ; and again iill your gazettes with increas- 
ed floods of abuse and slander on the tew surviving 
friends of the Godlike 'Washington, qn Strong, Pick- 



ering, and Jav ; in short, on all the enlightened lovers 
of peace and of their country : hasten a new edition of 
those ferragoes of excitements to war, and 'of malig- 
nant calumnies against its opposere, contained in the 
speeches and proclamations of your admired Gerry. 

But the subject is too serious and awful for irony. 
I have not forgotten, nor can I ever forget, while con- 
sciousness abides with me, my own mental sufferings 
during the period of our former war. Through those 
eight long ^ ears whose slow lingering pace, while hope 
was deferred and the heart sickened with pain and an- 
guish, seemed without end — a burden lay upon my 
spirits by day and by night almost too heavy for frail 
mortality to sustain. " During the hours of repose, vi- 
sions of horror rose in my imagination and disturbed 
my rest: through the long lived day, the distresses of 
my country and the dangers and disasters of my friends 
harassed my thoughts. In the mean while, the course 
of nature moved on tranquil and serene, without sus- 
pension or interruption. The delightful vicissitudes 
of day and night, and the cheering rotation of the sea- 
sons, were what they had been before, and what they 
have continued to be since ; but to my feelings they 
were not the same and brought not the accustomed 
pleasure. If in an early morning walk at the rise of 
the orb of day, in the splendour of his beams I beheld 
the vast creation around me and exclaimed with the 
poet, 

"These arc thy glorious works, Parent of good ! 
Almighty! thine this universal frame-, 
Thus Wondrous lair ;"' 

instantly my wounded spirit urged the remonstrance, 
" yet why, thou great source of beneficence, is tin 
chosen creature man, for whose sake this ample provi- 
sion has been made, why is he given up to those pas- 
sions and lusts, those strifes and contentions which fill 
the moral system with disorder, with confusion, and 
every evil work ! Why do I hear the sound of the 
trumpet and the alarm of war, the proud and clamo- 
rous shouts of discord and battle '?" — If again at even- 
tide, on the adjacent hills I meditated on the- : tarrj 



6 

firmament, on the planetary systems there hung forth 
to our admiring view, the unnumbered worlds rolling 
over our heads, and reflected on the perfect order and 
harmony with which they continue their unceasing 
movements, their respective revolutions, each in his 
own destined orbit, without any perceptible deviation, 
and regularly, from age to age, shed their benigo in- 
fluences on this abode of mortals — prostrating my soul 
before their great author and regulator, my heart 
prompted me to pray, " O thou God of order and of 
peace, send down, I beseech thee, from thy eternal 
throne, a portion of the celestial harmony to guide the 
counsels and pursuits of thy rational offspring here on 
earth. In giving them existence, thou hast deigned 
from thine infinite understanding to impart to them 
some rays of intelligence. Crown, O crown thy gift 
of reason to them -fry penetrating their hearts with a 
portion of thy love. Give them to know - and to feel 
how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell to- 
gether in unity." Thus daily lamenting, and praying 
against, the miseries of war, I passed through that 
most gloomy portion of my past life from 1775 till the 
transporting sound of peace in 1783. 

Abhorrent as my nature and all my feelings then 
were from war, I entertained the sentiment in w;hich 
my fellow-citizens universally, almost to a man, were 
agreed, that, on our part, it was necessary, and from 
this conviction I composed and preached frequent dis- 
courses to animate and encourage its prosecution. 
Our oppressors had explicitly avowed their purpose to 
wrest from us our dearest privileges, to bind us in all 
• ases whatever, subjecting us to their will and to what- 
ever burdens they might see fit to impose. They va- 
cated our charter., changed the forms of our govern- 
ments, and answered OUT humble petitions and re- 
monstrances at the mouths of their cannon. Their 
fleets and armies invaded our country, seized our prop- 
erty, wantonly shed the blood of oui peopl< , and them- 
selves commenced the war with ever} mark of ferocity 
and outrage. Thus circumstanced like the children 
of Judah in the context, we cried unto the Lord, to 



him committed our cause, and in a humble reliance 
upon him girded on the harness in our own defei 

In the motives for the present war, who can discern 
the least shade of resemblance to those for the former? 

And what christian, under the influence of christian 
principles, can dare pray for success? In order to the 
least hope from God, we must have a clear and perfect 
conviction that the Mar is just and necessary ; I say, 
necessary, for if it be not such as is forced upon us by 
absolute and dire necessity it cannot be just. Its very 
nature is violence against the lives and properties of our 
fellow-beings, our brethren, the children of our com- 
mon progenitor on earth and common Father in heaven. 
On this account it is denounced, even when most just 
and necessary, by M. de Vattel in his law of nations, 
as, " but a wretched expedient against those who spurn 
at justice and refuse the remonstrances of reason. It 
is (he goes on) in extremities only that a just and wise 
nation or a good prince has recourse to it. — Those 
who run to arms without necessity are the scourges of 
the human race, barbarians, enemies to society, and 
rebels to the law of nature, or rather to the common 
Father of mankind. — Humanity is shocked at a sover- 
eign who lavishes the lives of his subjects, who ex- 
poses his people to the havoc and miseries of war, 
when they might enjoy an honorable and salutary peace. 
Besides the misfortunes drawn on his subjects, for 
which he is accountable, he is guilty also of those he car- 
ries amidst an innocent people. The slaughter of men, 
the pillage of cities, the devastation of provinces, are 
his crimes. He is responsible to God, and accounta- 
ble to man, for every person that is killed. The vio- 
lences, the crimes, the various disorders attendant on 
the licentious tumult of arms, pollute his conscience 
and blacken his account, as he is the original author of 
them all." 

Such being, in the judgment of this wise and good 
Frenchman, the horrible guilt of those who engage in 
an unnecessary war, is it not the incumbent, the indis- 
pensable duty of every subject of these States, capable 
of the exercise of reason, in the fear of God, solemnly 



8 

to enquire, whether the present war be nccessan . 
whether the pretences for it be founded, and in tri 
case, whether they be of siTeh magnitude, so immedi- 
ately urgent and important, as to justify the adoption 
of so awful an expedient '? This question is forced 
upon our immediate consideration. Our consciences, 
if we have any, compel us to the discussion. Its late 
decision by our rulers does not exempt us from the 
obligation of giving it our most serious and impartial 
examination. Our rulers are men, and as such, arc lia- 
ble to err through misconception. To them applies the 
interrogatory, who can understand his errors ? They 
partake of the common depravity of our apostate na- 
ture, and, of course, arc liable to corrupt prejudices 
and passions, and from such depraved principles may 
form wicked decrees and establish iniquity by hiwr 
It is the glory of a free government, its chief and main 
excellence for which it ought to be desired and sought, 
comprising all that is meant or that is valuable in lib- 
crtv itself, that it constitutes the people a check upon 
their public servants, and, in the last resort, gives them 
the power of correcting the mistakes and of remedy- 
ing the evil and mischief, which the weakness or the 
wickedness of their rulers may have produced. They 
may displace such rulers and commit the management 
of their affairs to better characters. If through their 
own weakness and wickedness they fail of doing this, 
they forfeit all their privileges, offend against God, the 
giver of them, and expose themselves to his heaviest 
judgments, not only to the calamities of the present life 
as a community, but individually, to the danger of ev- 
erlasting punishment hereafter. If at the command of 
weak or wicked rulers, they undertake an unjust v. 
each man who volunteers his sen ires in such a cause, 
or loans his money for its support, or by his conversa- 
tion, his writings, or any Other mode of inllucnee, en- 
courages its prosecution, that man is an accomplice in 
the wickedness, loads his conscience with the blackest 
crimes, brings the guilt of blood upon his soul, and, in 
the sight of God and his law, is a niurelerer. War is 
hatred in its fullest and highest expression, and St. 



John explicitly affirms, that whosoever hateth his broth- 
er is a murderer, and that no murderer hath eternal life. 
At the last da}- we shall be judged, not by the laws of 
Congress, but by the law of God now mentioned, and 
Him we must obey, to the neglect of all opposing hu- 
man laws, and even at the risk of our lives. Whether 
to obey God or man, is the question upon which we 
are to make up our minds. In this awful dilemma, 
my brethren, you and I, all the men and all the women 
in these United States, are now placed. Each indi- 
vidual, after consulting his conscience and availing 
himself of all the information within his reach, must 
determine for himself, and according to his own ideas 
of responsibility to God, at whose tribunal he must 
give an account. Nor has he much time for delibe- 
ration. In obedience to the law olGod, that law, the 
fulfilment of which consists in love, benevolence, and 
universal goodness — we are now immediately to act 
and to suffer either in supporting, or, by all constitu- 
tional means, resisting that law of our rulers, which 
proclaims liberty to the sword, which calls us to rob 
and slaughter our fellow-men, our brethren, with whom 
we have ties of blood, oi interest, of manners, of speech, 
of opinion, and of religion, incomparably more near 
than with the men of any other nation on earth : A- 
gainst this nation we are command .d to wage war, do- 
ing them all possible harm and mischief, while they do 
all possible harm and mischief to us. Into this most 
horrible state of things our rulers have brought us : In 
these dreadful circumstances the)- have placed us by 
their declaration oi' war. 

Their pretences for this, as stated in their manifesto, 
after being stript of much false colouring, many un- 
proved assertions, and an abundance of verbal exagger- 
ation, ma)' chiefly be comprised under three heads. 
They pretend that, in a war of almost twenty years' 
duration, and of a nature and character different from 
any other that has ever happened in modern times, 
some of our seamen have been pressed on board Brit- 
ish ships — that British cruisers have sometimes insulted 
our coast ; but that the main pro\ ocation is, that die 
2 



10 



British Orders in Council were not repealed, alter our 
President had proclaimed the repeal of the Berlin and 
Milan Decrees of France. — With respect to the two 
first of these provocations — the impressment occasion- 
ally of some of our sailors, and an instance or two of out- 
rage in our harbours — it has never been pretended that 
either of these was authorised by the British government. 
In every instance, they were the, irregular, unwarranted 
acts of individuals, subordinate officers, whose rashness 
and folly no government can at all times and every 
where restrain. The redress of these grievances how- 
ever, and compensation for such injuries, after proof 
of them has been fairly and fully exhibited, have never 
been refused. Our great and almost only controversv 
with England, respects her Orders in Council restrict- 
ing our trade with France, because France had first pro- 
hibited our trade with England by her Berlin and Milan 
Decrees. As the British Orders were professedly oc- 
casioned by the French Decrees, it was expected that 
they would be revoked on the repeal of those Decrees. 
Our government, having proclaimed that repeal de- 
manded the revocation of the British Orders. England 
replied that we were mistaken in our assertion of the 
repeal of the French Decrees, and, in proof of our mis- 
take produced official documents of the French govern- 
ment explicitly contradicting our proclamation, and af- 
firming that those decrees, so far from being repealed, 
were the fundamental laws of the French empire, and 
therefore were not and never could be repealed. She 
urged further, that ourselves knew that they were not re- 
pealed, by the almost daily loss of our ships and cargoes 
in consequence of their continued execution ; as since 
the period of their pretended repeal, scores, if not hun- 
dreds of our vessels had been seized in French ports, or 
burnt at sea by French cruisers, while. many of their un- 
offending crews were manacled like slaves, confined in 
French prisons, or forced on board French ships, to fight 
against England* In opposition however to all these 
proofs, our go\ t rninent, with an hardihood and effrontery 
at which demons might have blushed, persisted in as- 
serting the repeal, and, in revenge against England for 



11 

not believing tfiem, passed their non-intercourse law, 
laid their embargo, and now have declared war. 

My brethren, if we have any regard for truth and 
righteousness, what must we think of such pretences 
for war'? The apathy and indifference with which 
some persons among us seem to receive the annuncia- 
tion of it is, to me, matter of amazement. Consider- 
ing that we are the subjects of the Prince of peace, 
the professors of that religion which breathes peace on 
earth and good will towards men, the disciples of the 
meek and lowly Jesus, who have taken his yoke upon 
us, and entered into the most solemn engagements to 
imitate and obey him, having in us the same mind that 
was in him, 1 am amazed that a general shriek of hor- 
ror at this deed of our rulers has not been heard from 
one extremity of our country to the other. For my- 
self, from the moment my ears received the tidings, 
my mind has been in a constant agony, not so much 
at the inevitable loss of our temporal prosperity and 
happiness, and the complicated miseries of war, as at 
its guilt, its outrage against Heaven, against all truth, 
honesty, justice, goodness — against all the principles of 
social happiness. As a teacher of righteousness, as a 
minister of Christ, I feel myself under obligations in- 
finitely superior to all human laws, most solemnly to 
testifv, both in public and in private, even- where, in 
the hearing of all persons, rulers and subjects, against 
this atrocious wickedness, and to lay down my life, 
rather than cease this testimony. To you, my breth- 
ren, and to all my fellow citizens I sav, in the lan- 
guage of the text,"" FIGHT YE NOT AGAINST 
THE LORD GOD OF YOUR FATHERS; FOR 
YE SHALL NOT PROSPER. 1 ' 

No recent injury has been done us, no new provo- 
cation has been offered; nothing has happened of a 
nature to inflame the passions, and to bring on the 
present phrenzy. It is therefore the more wonderful, 
and can be accounted for on no other principle, but the 
imperceptible influence which the author of all evil, 
the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, 
has been permitted to exert in the hearts of dark-mind- 



12 

cd, cool, deliberately wicked rulers. They have ac- 
knowledged themselves caught and entangled in the 
toils of Bonaparte, that rival of satan himself in guile 
and mischief, and his most conspicuous agent here on 
earth. He twisted and prepared the slip-noose which 
our rulers, in fulfilment of prior engagements to him, 
have put about the neck of their country. Thus 
strangling us, snug in their lucrative places, with the 
calmness of French philosophers, they enjoy our ago- 
nies. " The king and Haman sat down to drink, 
but the city Shushan was perplexed." 

Were not the authors of this war in character nearly 
akin to the deists and atheists of France ; were they 
not men of hardened hearts, seared consciences, rep- 
robate minds, and desperate in wickedness ; it seems 
utterlv inconceivable that they should have made the 
declaration. Their pretensions, in my judgment, are 
either glaring, unblushing falsehoods, or for things so 
trifling and unimportant that it may be queried wheth- 
er they would not be wickedly obtained at the hazard 
of a single life. The trade of France is confessedly 
the main object. That trade in its very best state, be- 
fore the restrictions on either side, it has been abund- 
antly proved, amounted not to the tenth part of our 
trade to England which France first prohibited ; yet 
we go to war against England in favor of France, and 
this too at a time when France has so encumbered 
our trade with her by duties and restrictions as to 
render it worse than nothing, and its prohibition by 
England no grievance. What object then is there for 
the' war, which is the destruction of all trade and of all 
the persons who depend upon it for their support ? 
How black must be the motives to such a war ; a war 
in real it v against ourselves, our interest and happiness. 
Is there not room to fear that its authors may have 
secretly formed their plan after the model of the French 
revolutionists. 

Circumstanced as the country now is, divided into 
two great parties, the present rulers cannot feel them- 
selves secure in their places, before such a phalanx of 
opposers as their past provoking conduct has embodied 



13 

against them in all the mercantile States. Conscious 
of their guilt and danger, but destitute, as fallen angels. 

ofanv heart to repent, party spirit and rage have SO 
worked them up that they have at length become des- 
perate, and in a fit of desperation have proclaimed war. 
They well know that in a free government like ours, 
war cannot be carried on without the general and almost 
unanimous consent of the people, and thai a great body 
of opponents must occasion a civil war. Situated as 
the country now is, this they must expect ; but as they 
have the power in their hands and count upon being 
on the strongest side, having the great Bonaparte for 
their ally, assisted by him, do they not mean to rush 
on to the war against England over the dead bodies 
of its vanquished opposers "? Is there not, at least, room 
to fear this ? 

If at the present moment, no symptoms of civil 
war appeal - , they certainly will soon, unless the cour- 
age of the war party should fail them. The opposi- 
tion comprises all the best men in the nation, men of 
the greatest talents, courage and wealth, and whose 
Washingtonian principles will compel them to die 
rather than stain their hands in the blood of an unjust 
war. Prudence leads them at present, to cloak their 
opposition under constitutional forms. Provoked at 
these obstacles, the patrons of war will have recourse 
to violence. Attempts will be first made to bridle the 
tongues and pens of the opponents. This has been 
done in Congress already, while the war-question was 
under debate. It was by gagging the mouth of a 
Randolph and other enlightened patriots that the act 
passed. The mouths of the opposition abroad must 
be next gagged, their hands tied, and their feet made to 
move at the will of the war-party. When in the 
course of their progress, the enemy shall be coming 
as a flood, and the distresses of war shall press heavy, 
all their losses and misfortunes will be attributed to 
their present opponents. Against these a popular clam- 
our will be set up, a deadly hatred excited. They will 
be called enemies to their country, traitors, the friends 
of Britain and of monarchy, opposers of a republican 



14 



government, and insurgents against the laws. Who 
ever robs or murders them will think that he docs God 
and his country .service. At length they will be pro- 
claimed rebels, and force used to subdue them. As 
no considerable number of men will tamely surrender 
their lives, force on the one side will produce force on 
the other. Thus a civil war becomes as certain as the 
events which happen according to the known laws and 
established course of nature. 

In New Enlgand, the war declared cannot be ap- 
proved by any but here and there a furious part}- lead- 
er, a few ignorant, deluded fanatics, and a handful of 
desperadoes. It must be abhorred by more than nine 
tenths of the people in the mercantile states, and by 
every sober, good man in all the states. In the face 
of an opposition so numerous and formidable, how 
desperate and sanguinary must have been the views of 
its authors? Their chosen master, Bonaparte, how- 
ever, must be obeyed, at every hazard. They could 
not endure his reproaches, that " they were without 
policy, without spirit, without principle, and inferior to 
a colony of Jamaica." 

My brethren, the blood runs cold in my veins at 
the prospect of the heart chilling scenes before us. 
The thing which we greatly feared is come upon us. 
Standing by the bed of death, I have often exhorted 
the dying, as a temper suitable to their awful situation, 
to be thankful for the mercies of their past lives, and 
that they have lived so long. A like temper now be- 
comes us all. We have abundant reason to be thank- 
ful to the God of our fathers, that this dreadful calam- 
ity has not sooner overtaken us. It is within the rec- 
ollection of many of you, that in 1794, eighteen years 
ago, it would have befallen us, had the man b) whom it 
has been now proclaimed been able to effect his pur- 
pose. At that time indeed we had received much 
greater provocation than any of which we now com- 
plain. It is well known that Mr. Madison exerted his 
utmost influence in Congress for a declaration of war, 
and in all probability would have effected it, had not 
the great and good father of his country stoodasabul- 



15 

wark against him. To the administration of Wash- 
ington he was inveterately hostile : and whoever, with 
an impartial eye, has observed his official conduct, es- 
pecially toward England, from that day to this, must 
be constrained to believe that he has been uniformly 
seeking what he has now obtained. 

In the mean while however, notwithstanding all the 
spoliations of the powers at war, we have been grow- 
ing, beyond all former example, in riches and in what- 
ever constitutes the prosperity and happiness of a people. 
Wealth has flown in upon our sea-ports, every foot of 
ground belonging to them has risen in value more than 
a thousand per cent! the number of buildings has 
doubled and trebled, many of them have risen spacious 
and splendid palaces, and our merchants have become 
princes in opulence, while every class of tradesmen, 
mechanics, and labourers, have had full and constant 
£mploy, and more than double wages. This prosperity 
from trade has extended and diffused its salutary and en- 
livening effects over the face of the whole country, into 
every town and village, and to the remotest settlements 
in the wilderness. This full tide of prosperous and 
successful experiment was principally occasioned by 
Jay's treaty with Great Britain ; and it continued with- 
out abatement to the expiration of that treat}". Of all 
the nations on the globe, we progressed incomparably 
the most happy and prosperous, up to the period when 
our own Jeffersons and Madisons, with their adju- 
tors, commenced their depredations upon us. From 
that era, we have been as rapidly declining, as we 
were increasing before. Already real estate, both in 
town and country, has lost nearly half its value in con- 
sequence of the laws against commerce. The great 
body of our merchants will, not hesitate to declare, 
that they have experienced more embiwassnu :nt in their 
business, and have sustained greater, losses in conse- 
quence of non-importation a|ts, embargoes, non-in- 
tercourses, and other absurd laws of our own govern- 
ment, than all that they ever sustained in the same 
time from the nations at war. I believe it too to be 
a fact, that the execution of those irliquitous laws has 



16 



occasioned the loss of more lives, than the country 
has ever lost amidst the collisions of the warring pow- 
ers. By the enactment of such laws, the vessel of 
state was run aground, unrigged, and various hands 
employed in hacking it to pieces. But even these 
methods of destruction were too tardy to satisfy the 
impatience of the great enemy of human felicity, the 
t\ rant of France. At his nod, we have now in a mo- 
ment been thrown into a gulph of miser}-, whose bounds 
and bottom no eye, short of omniscience, can discern. 
One hope only remains, that this last stroke of per- 
fidy ma}- open the eyes of a besotted and most wretch- 
edly deluded people, that they may awake, like a gi- 
ant from his slumbers, and wreak their vengeance on 
their betrayers by driving them from their stations, 
and placing at helm more skilful and faithful hands. 
Indignant as I feel towards the present rulers as the 
guilty authors of the public calamities, I wish them 
no other harm but a speedy return to that private con- 
dition, from which the} have only emerged to pour 
blasting and mildew upon their country. If the} have 
not sinned beyond the reach of divine mercy, I can 
still pray for them, and that the}- may soon be placed 
in that retirement which is the most favourable to con- 
sideration and repentance. — For myself, according to 
the course of nature, I have but a short time either to 
mourn or rejoice in the affairs of men ; but while it 
shall please God to continue me in this tabernacle, by 
his grace, no fear of man shall deter me from dis- 
charging what in my conscience I believe to be my 
duty, in testifying against wickedness in high places, 
as well as in low. J — 



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WERT BOOKBINDING 

: JAN 1989 

^ 'Xjrantvillc, PA 



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